“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me about it? It tears me up to think of your worrying about this.” Trace hugged her hard.
“I’m sorry, Papa.”
“No,” he said fiercely. “You stop being sorry, do you hear? You may be my little thinker, but you needn’t think you’re responsible for the entire world. Right now, all you’re responsible for is—” he paused, gesturing toward the bowl, “those peas.”
“The peas!” Emma exclaimed, scrambling from his lap. “We’d best get them on to boil, Mama, or Katrina will be downstairs trying to talk you out of having them. I worked hard to shell them. I want to eat them tonight”
Smiling, Jenny stood and held out her hand. “Come along then, Emmie. I happen to know there’s a pot on my stove just clamoring for peas.”
They started up the steps when Tye said, “Wait a minute. Emma, can I ask you a question? You said you wanted to tell your Mama about Katrina’s lie?”
She nodded.
“And the lie is that I’m Katrina’s father?”
Again, she nodded.
“How do you know it’s a lie, Emma?”
“ ‘Cause I heard Mother say it.”
Trace’s gaze sought Jenny’s as Tye prodded their daughter again. “Whom did she say it to?” he asked.
“That funny-talking man.”
“Can you remember exactly what she said, honey?”
Emma shrugged. “That was a long time ago, Uncle. I was very little. All I really remember is how mean her voice sounded. It scared me.”
“Your mother sounded mean?”
“I’d forgotten until I went in Willow Hill’s secret passageway. That’s what made me remember. It was her laugh that was so awful, you see. She laughed when she said she couldn’t wait to see the look on my papa’s face when she told him Uncle Tye had made the baby. She said it would destroy him to believe his daughter wasn’t really his, and that he deserved to believe a lie.”
Trace had grown very still. He stared intently at a beetle, crawling in the dirt near the bottom of the stoop. Jenny laid her hand on his shoulder. His muscles were as hard as steel. “What else, Emma?” she asked gently. “Do you remember anything else they said?”
She shrugged. “Something about a brilliant plan and lots of money. She said Papa should have stayed out of politics.” After a moment’s pause, she added, “I was so scared. When the funny-talking man left, I tried to ask her not to destroy Papa. Then she hit me. That’s when I wished she wasn’t my mother. That’s all I remember.” She opened the kitchen door. “We’d best hurry, Mama. Katrina’s bound to wake up from her nap any minute.”
“Certainly.” Jenny’s eyes were misty as she leaned over and pressed a kiss to her husband’s head before going inside.
“I’ll be right there,” Trace said hoarsely.
He watched the beetle disappear into a tuft of green weeds, then looked at his brother. Tye’s expression was similar to one he’d worn during the war in the aftermath of battle. Trace figured his own countenance must appear the same.
“It was all a setup,” Tye said bitterly. “She set me up, and I fell for it.”
“Why did she do it?” Trace asked, knowing but not believing.
“The money, of course. The inheritance went to the eldest child of the eldest child. It was a lot of money, a whole lot. Good old Cousin Lord Howard’s finder’s fee was probably enough to set him up for life. I’m eight minutes older than you. If Constance wanted that money, she had to go through me to get it. And I toppled like a rotten tree to her wicked intrigues.”
Trace’s voice trembled as he said, “Katrina is really mine.”
Tye stooped and scooped a rock off the ground with his uninjured arm. He threw it hard, grimacing in pain. “I didn’t get her pregnant the night of the ball, because you’d already done it. Howard told me the baby had been born a few weeks early, that she was little and sickly.”
Trace shook his head. “Kat was the biggest of our babies.”
“Your babies.” Tye’s voice cracked on the words. He cleared his throat before continuing. “There it is. I gotta tell you, brother, the notion tears at my heart. I love her, too, you know. Even though I never laid eyes on her until I knocked on your front door a couple of weeks ago, I’ve loved her since the moment I learned she existed. But she’s not mine, after all. She’s yours.
“Katrina is your daughter.”
JENNY FOUND Trace in the extra bedroom she had adapted as a workroom. In one corner stood a dressmaker’s form, and upon it hung The Bad Luck Wedding Dress. Seeing the gown, she said a quick, silent prayer for the health and happiness of Big Jack Bailey’s new grandson. It was the least she could do, she thought. In a crazy way, Big Jack had brought immeasurable joy to the McBride family.
Trace stood before the dress. He was fingering the pearls. She wondered if his thoughts were similar to hers.
“Trace?”
He looked over at her, and the expression in his eyes twisted her heart. Grief. All-consuming, soul-wrenching grief. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Me. I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong. I’ve been a goddamn fool. It doesn’t matter. All these years, it’s been my guiding force. I ran because of it. I ached because of it. I wouldn’t trust because of it. If not for you being who you are, I’d have denied my daughters a mother because of it.”
She went to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “What is it, darling?”
“It is the seed that gave my daughter life. It took all of this for me to learn that it simply doesn’t matter. I’ve always been Katrina’s father. Hell, the king of England could have sired the child, but I’d still be her father. Always. It truly doesn’t matter.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I have you to thank for my leap of understanding, you realize.”
Jenny smiled up at him. “Me and the Bad Luck Wedding Dress.”
The pain disappeared from his eyes, replaced by a glow of love so fierce it took her breath away. “No, not the Bad Luck Wedding Dress. Wilhemina Peters was right about that.”
“Right about what?”
“This dress is special, but we were too blind to see it- It never has been the Bad Luck Wedding Dress, Jenny. It’s been good luck right from the start. It’s the Good Luck Wedding Dress.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb and asked in a gravelly voice, “Wear it for me, treasure, would you? Now. Right now? Tonight?”
Jenny turned and locked the door. “You want me to model my design, Mr. McBride?”
“Yes. Oh, yes.”
“I’m not a model, you understand.” She undid the buttons down the bodice of her dress. “I’m a dressmaker.”
“A very fine dressmaker,” he said. “And an even finer figure of a woman.”
She pulled her gown off her shoulders. “That’s right. I’m a fine dressmaker. An excellent dressmaker. A master, in fact.”
“Yes, ma’am.” His voice was strangled.
“So, I’ll model the Good Luck Wedding Dress for you on one condition, Mr. McBride.”
She was naked now. “Condition? Honey, I’m willing to do damned near anything.”
She picked up her tape measure and dropped to her knees before him. Licking her lips, she said, “Let me measure your inseam first?”
Fort Worth Daily Democrat
June 1, 1888
Talk about Town
by Wilhemina Peters
THERE IS an old saying that All the World Loves a Lover. Livestock is another matter entirely.
Yesterday evening the people of Fort Worth were treated to the spectacle of another McBride family wedding. The event eclipsed every other social occasion in our fair city in the past five years, and will without a doubt provide fodder for discussion for years to come.
The bride, Miss Emmaline Suzanne McBride, was resplendent in her mother’s gown, the Good Luck Wedding Dress that has brought Mrs. McBride such fame. The groom, Mr. Casey Tate, owner of the Lucky Lady Ranch southeast of town,
appeared starstruck by his wife’s beauty, as well he should have.
Attending their sister were Misses Maribeth Elizabeth and Katrina Julianne McBride, gowned in exquisite designs of yellow organdy. The church was filled to capacity, the flowers abundant, and the music superb.
It was such a shame the McBrides chose to allow their younger children to attend the ceremony.
In an apparent effort to eclipse the McBride Menaces’ reputation for mischief, the younger children contributed to the ceremony in an unforgettable manner. Without a doubt, Fort Worth will recall this wedding for generations to come.
Whereas their sisters had turned mice and cats and dogs loose at their parents’ wedding, these children decided to move to bigger barnyard animals. Immediately upon the completion of the vows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and a pair of longhorn cattle were ushered inside.
But, my dear readers, it wasn’t the livestock that had the church pews emptying faster than a “Go in peace” on a windy-sermon Sunday. Allow me to say it in a word.
Polecat.
Yes, Fort Worth, you read it right. The youngsters turned a polecat loose at their big sister’s wedding. Mr. McBride’s shouted assurance that the family pet’s protective essence had been medically removed did little to stop the exodus from the church.
This reporter feels compelled to comment. I ask you this, Fort Worth. Our fair city suffered through the mischief of the McBride Menaces for years. Are any of us ready for the second wave? Can Fort Worth survive the challenge of Trace and Jenny McBride’s three boys, Billy, Tommy, and Bobby McBride—otherwise known as the McBride Monsters? Will luck be with us?
Keep your fingers crossed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Geralyn Dawson is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty-five novels written in a variety of sub-genres including historical romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and women's fiction. She is a three-time Finalist for Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA award and a recipient of Romantic Times magazine's Career Achievement Award. Her novel THE WEDDING RANSOM was named one of Romance Writers of America's Top Ten Favorite Novels of the Year.
Geralyn is currently writing romantic women's fiction for Ballantine Books under the pseudonym Emily March. The first novel of March's Eternity Springs series, ANGEL'S REST, was named a Top 100 Book of 2011 by Publishers Weekly magazine. It, along with the next two books in the series, HUMMINGBIRD LAKE, and HEARTACHE FALLS each earned coveted starred reviews from Publishers Weekly magazine. The fourth book of the series, LOVER'S LEAP will be published December 27th, 2011 with NIGHTINGALE WAY to follow in Fall 2012.
Visit her website: www.emilymarch.com
Sign up for her newsletter: www.emilymarch.com.
Join her on Facebook: facebook.com/emilymarchbooks
Follow her on Twitter @geralyndawson and @emilymarchbooks
Read all the books in the Bad Luck Wedding Series!
In order:
THE BAD LUCK WEDDING DRESS
THE BAD LUCK WEDDING CAKE
SIMMER ALL NIGHT
SIZZLE ALL DAY
THE BAD LUCK WEDDING NIGHT
HER BODYGUARD
HER SCOUNDREL
HER OUTLAW
Read more about these and Geralyn's/Emily's other books at
http://www.emilymarch.com
Table of Contents
Title page
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Bad Luck Wedding Dress (The Bad Luck Wedding series) Page 35